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<br />001085 <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />This cause was first assigned to the writer a year ago and an opinion <br />affirming the jud@lllmt was handed down April 15. following. Then came petitions <br />for rehearing by the plaintiff and others. eight in all. in whioh. by leave of <br />oourt. the entire cause was re-presented. and this again by oral argument <br />September 9. 1935. Thus while no rehearing has been !5l"anted the procedure <br />followed has given counsel all the advantage thereof. In fact same of them <br />were permitted to appear for the first time by briefs on these petitionh Perhaps <br />few cases in this court have been more fully presented. or received more careful <br />and extended consideration by the justioes. due largely to the extent and impor- <br />tance of the interests involved and the number and standing of counsel repre- <br />senting those interests. Our earlier labors were naturally devoted to a consider- <br />ation of the theories advanoed in the briefs and the reasons urged in their sup- <br />port. Our former opinion, hereby withdrawn, was thus written. Very reoently <br />however, we have reached the conolusion that this judgment should be reversed <br />for the foregoing reasons. reasons not assigned in any of the very able briefs <br />or oral' arguments with Which we have been favored. save inferentially. where <br />Messrs. Lee. Shaw & McCreery cite Greeley Transportation Co. v. People. 79 Colo. <br />3CY7. 314. 245 Pac. 720. and quote therefrom the follovringl '''That is expressed <br />is exclusive only when it is creative. or in derogation of some existing law.' <br />Lewis. Sutherland Stat. Const. (2~d) Ed.). Vol. 2. Sec. 491"The enactment of a <br />law does not raise a presumption that it did not exist before.' (Id. Sec. 495." <br /> <br />, . <br /> <br />Such being the disposition of it. not only are defendants in error <br />entitled to petition for rehearing. if so advised. but to argue that petition. <br />and plaintiff in error and amici curiae to answer such argument. Such petition <br />and briefs, if any, will be filed as by our rules provided and limited to this <br />opinion. Such of !Ul1ici curiae as desire to appear further will join in a single <br />brief. <br /> <br />. " <br /> <br />The judgment is accordingly reversed and the oause remanded for furf:her <br />prooeedings in harmony herovlith. <br /> <br />MR. JUSTICE BUTLER, conourring. <br /> <br />For the reasons stated in the prinoipal opinion and in this opinion, <br />I concur in the reversal of the jud@llllnt. <br /> <br />On October 1. 1888, certain 1andm'rners c~~enced the construction of <br />the reservoir involved in this suit. They completed the reservoir with dili- <br />gence and S{>plied the water to the irrigation of growing crops on their land. <br />They thereby made a valid appropriation of unappropriated water for irrigation <br />purposes to the extent of 2.083 aore feat. and acquired a vested right of which <br />they could not be deprived by subsequent appropriatiors or by any "Ct of the <br />General Assembly. After making suoh appropriation, they incorporated a mutual <br />reservoir company, the relator herein. and conveyed to it the reservoir and <br />their water rights pertaining thereto. Thereafter. up to the present time, the <br />water has been used by the stockholders for the irrigation of their lands. <br />In 1907. in a general adjudioation prooeeding, the oourt deoreed to the oompany <br />priority as of October 1. 1888. for 2.083 acre feet of water for the purpose of <br />irrigation. <br /> <br />The principal question for deoision is whether appropriators having <br />appropriations of later date. in other words. junior appropriators--and there <br />are many of them--are entitled to use for irrigation purposes the vlater there- <br />tofore appropriated for irrigation purposes by the predecessors of the oompany <br /> <br />-5- <br />